


Beyond Your Session, and What to Expect

by catalyticGenesis



Series: Musings and Thoughts on Sburb [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Replay Value AU, SBURB Guide
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-22
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-16 16:30:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 7,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7275580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catalyticGenesis/pseuds/catalyticGenesis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In any regular session, you should not have to leave your Incipisphere. However, many sessions aren't. This is a guide on what happens, what's out there, and what to expect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Locations

Skaia is the center. Prospit circles close. The Lands form a ring a little farther out. Farther out, the Veil Beyond that, Derse. And beyond that, is the End.

The End of your session, that is.

The specifics of location and names are rather fuzzy among the Replayer community. In this chapter, I plan to clear up the terminology.

**Skaia**

This is pretty simple. Skaia is the area surrounding the Battlefield, containing the Skaian Clouds, and ending at Prospit. Prospit dips into Skaia once during its rotation, which is intense and dreamers should not be outside. The only part of Skaia you should be in is the Battlefield. Do not go near the Skaian Clouds. In general, you should not go higher than you see Prospitian or Dersite armies. Once you are beyond that, you could go blind, see something you really ought not, or just simply die.

**Prospit**

Prospit is one of Skaia’s moons. If you are a Prospit Dreamer, you go to its moon when you dream. Yes, the moon has a moon. Prospit is considered the Light Kingdom, and tries to protect Skaia while Derse is trying to kill it. Derse always wins. There are many points of interest on a Moon, but this is not this guide’s purpose. Don’t go near the prototyping towers and you should be good. The exact boundary of Prospit is right outside the big fancy letters that say Prospit. Don’t try to go beyond it with your dreamself until you have completed the [Earn Your Wings] series of quests.

**The Lands**

The players’ lands make up the next area. They do not orbit Skaia in the way Prospit and Derse do, but instead stand perfectly still. This is convenient, seeing as the players must build their dumb houses all the way up to Skaia. These are the location of most of the player’s challenges. Lots of stuff happens here.

**The Veil**

The Veil is a partially incomplete area of the game. It’s a large ring of asteroids, some of which contain structures. Inside these, there are labs, areas you could conceivably live in (and many need to), empty spaces, and the Ectobiology Labs. I will elaborate on these areas later, but this is just the basics. This is the edge of the Medium.

**Derse**

This is Skaia’s other moon. You could also go here to dream on this moon’s moon. Derse is known as the Dark Kingdom, and tries to destroy Skaia. It always wins, but the players must defeat it afterwards. As with Prospit, don’t go near the prototyping towers or you will die. And do not venture beyond the big fancy font ‘Derse’ that’s just kinda floating out there. That’s not somewhere you want to be.

**The Medium**

This is the overarching area between Skaia and the Veil. The Medium contains Skaia, the Battlefield, the Lands, and the Veil. It does not contain Prospit. Prospit is its own little area ruled by its own rules. The Medium is where all of your gameplay (except Dreaming) should take place.

**The Incipisphere**

This is where your session takes place. Every bit of it. It contains Skaia, the Battlefield, Prospit, the Lands, the Veil, and Derse. The edge of it varies between sessions, but it is obvious when you cross it. You should not have to cross it. In any regular, regularly glitched, or even spectacularly glitched session, you should not have to cross it. Only in extreme situations that render your entire session null, void, or otherwise unable to access the Final Reward/Replay should you have to cross it.

You will know when you cross the barrier. I can’t describe it perfectly, but you know. There is no mistaking the feeling.

**The Furthest Ring**

This is everywhere that is not in the Incipisphere. It can be used to travel between sessions, or just aimlessly wander. However, this is where the Others live.

**The Green Sun**

This is a very large (possibly the size of two pre-session universes) star. It does not run on nuclear fusion like a normal star from the pre-session. In fact, there is no proof it even is a star. However, this is the only way we can describe it. It is massive and powerful. It is rumored that this is the Debug NPC’s source of power.

**Pre-Session Universes**

I don’t know. I simply do not know where the pre-session universes exist. No one has any idea as far as I know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is written by a native and current Maid of Heart, on their sixth session. Shit hit the fan, and now we're headed through the Furthest Ring. We're hanging in, and everyone is helping out. I'll be updating this whenever we pass in range of an active server, but I have no idea how often that will be.


	2. The Incipisphere as a Solar System

To begin with, this is not really a solar system. It is comparable to a solar system.  
Skaia is the closest thing to a star. It does not provide light for the session, as all objects are somehow self-luminous. It is the center of the Incipisphere, however. Prospit and Derse both orbit it. The Lands are positioned around it, but do not orbit. They mostly just stay there.  
Prospit and Derse are both considered Skaia’s moons, though they behave closer to planets. They orbit around Skaia in an extremely regular pattern, and do not deviate. This causes their eclipses to happen approximately once every rotation. Don’t go outside during an eclipse. In fact, don’t be dreaming during an eclipse. I don’t know where their light source is. I think it’s all just self-luminous. Prospit is an eyesore.  
Prospit and Derse’s Dream Moons are...sort of moons. They’re more like a constructed satellite chained to the main body. Don’t break the chain. Honestly, it’s common sense. This is your default spawn location when you dream.   
The Lands are sort of planets, but also sort of fucked up. Technically they’re too small to be a planet and are considered planetoids. They don’t orbit, rotate, revolve, or do any of that stuff that normal planets do. They’re just kinda floating there. The sky is typically self-luminous, unless you get a land with Night, Dark, Twilight, or anything that logically connects to darkness in the name. Those will be dark, and they will have their own little glowing objects scattered around the Land.  
The Veil is a large belt of asteroids. There’s some cool shit there. They stay still all the time unless disturbed. However, this is where the Reckoning pulls from, so don’t be there when that’s happening.  
The empty space is rather habitable. It’s not cold, it’s breathable, and you won’t explode from pressure.

On a side note, the developers of SBURB clearly failed many high school (probably middle and elementary as well) classes on how space works. The empty space being non-threatening can be excused by the fact that it’s a game. That’s all I’ll excuse. Prospit and Derse shouldn’t be moons. By all definitions, they are planets. And moons do not have moons. Or any satellite for that matter. Prospit and Derse are planets with satellites, that’s it. How do you even fail astronomy so badly?


	3. Escape Pod

This is the technical name given to any vessel used to escape your session. There are many options, but only a few of them are ideal. The ideal vessel should be large enough for each of your players to have their own room, a large common room, at least three bathrooms that are fully functional, a lot of room for supplies, and basic game machines. Two ideal types of Escape Pod are a Prospitian or Dersite Battleship, or a meteor from the Veil. The Battleships are already set up to host life, and the meteors have a lot of space. However, I’ve heard of travelling in anything from an actual Escape Pod (the ones exiles get, which are shaped like your entry item) to the literal Moon of Derse. If you can get it moving, you’re good to go.

 

Battleships

You can obtain a Battleship by making an appeal to the Black or White Queen, or sometimes even Jack Noir/the Derse Archagent/whatever silly name he’s going by in your session (though, as with anything to do with him, it involves a fair share of stabbing).

An appeal to the White Queen should go something like this: “We truly have no way of surviving, saving Skaia, and creating the Speaker of the Vast Croak. We humbly request your assistance in leaving the session for Another Chance, and we are willing to meet any requests of yours.” Be fancier, and elaborate a lot. If applicable, modify your God Tier outfit into the Fancy Tier variation. The Queens love that shit. Common requests on her part involve taking the libraries, taking her Ring, or simply just pledging allegiance to Creation.

An appeal to the Black Queen should go similar to this: “We have seen the vast power of your armies, and no longer wish to side with the Kingdom of Light. However, our continued presence in this session prevents you from reaching your goals of destruction. If we may humbly request a Vessel to travel the Furthest Ring with, that would be a great favor towards us. We will cause you no trouble for the remainder of our stay, and you may ask anything of us.” As with before, please elaborate and wear your Fancy Tier outfit. Be careful what you agree to, because they’re more likely to sic you with something you don’t want.

And finally, an appeal to Jack Noir is fairly simple. Basically, just explain to him you want out cause you’re not gonna win, and wouldn’t he like you out of his metaphorical hair? He’s pretty agreeable when it comes down to it. Bring a Life player or other healer, and a large stash of Licorice Scottie Dogs. Jack Noir does not always have the power to give you a Battleship, but can usually come up with something. He’s the best to go to out of the three options, surprisingly enough.

Meteors

With this option, you have to be very careful not to do it during the Reckoning. If the Reckoning starts before you’re out of the session, you get sent into a desolate pre-session world. If this is what you want, great. It’s probably not though, so be careful.

Meteors make pretty decent Escape Pods. The Ectobiology Lab is a fairly good meteor, but it has all of those excess machines lying around.

In standard, a meteor you wish to escape should have the following: A room for each player; a room large enough to be a common room, complete with computers; functioning transportalizers; a lot of storage area; and a room for gardening. It should not have Holes.

The Veil is a largely incomplete area. In some parts of the coding, there are errors that create Holes. We do not know what’s in holes. They’re just a black void that you ought not go near. If your meteor has Holes in it, either find a more complete meteor, or be careful. The Ectobiology Meteor, the Frog Temple Meteor, and the Final Meteor are usually the most complete. The Final Meteor is the emptiest, as it is just the last meteor of the Reckoning. This is the largest meteor there is, and can hold the most players and equipment.

Regardless of which meteor you choose, load supplies into it and find something to propel it.

Dream Moons

This is a Poor Choice. It’s such a Poor Choice it needs to be capitalized. These are not meant for long term travel, and are only a good choice for a Drift into the Sun situation (which I will elaborate on later). The Dream Moon is not made for beings other than Dreamselves. Please, just don’t. The carapacians will be upset with you, and may become hostile. Just don’t.


	4. Drift into the Sun

This is a very specific type of escape, and you will rarely, if ever, have to use it. In fact, I don’t know anyone who has; only the theory and logic behind it. In addition to being the power source of the Debug NPC, the Green Sun is also a portal that brings you across session boundaries and where you need to be. This is about as viable as travelling through Skaia instead of the Furthest Ring to escape a session. To say: it’s not impossible, but we have no fucking clue what’s going to happen to you. There have been theories that it has its own type of corruption, colloquially know (among those hardcore theorists) as Green Bullshit. Instead of corrupting you in the same way that Others or Angels do, it erases. Like the Scratch, but more minor. We don’t really know, but it seems logical? Okay, I’m not a part of this board or anything, I don’t understand it either, but this was found in an out-of-the-way board that I’m not sure I can find again, so this is just what I understood. In short: it could work, but we have no fucking clue.


	5. Preparation

Please, for the love of all things Angel or Other-related, do not just go out into the Ring unprepared. That’s how you die.

The first step is to pretend that everything’s okay. Fool the game. Even if you know you can’t make enough progress to win the game, you still have to push forwards. This buys you time. Time to prepare.

Typically, completing the game until the Underworld saga is ideal. Keep grinding, explore dungeons, explore ruins, complete fetch quests, and stockpile. Don’t spend grist on unnecessary things. Learn your powers, learn how to garden (extremely important) and learn as many psybuffs as you can.

After you are sure you cannot make any more progress, you grind. Keep roleplaying, as this can fool the game into thinking you’re still making process. Re-do dungeons. Go as far in Skaia.net labs as you can (but never past the 999th floor). Keep questing. Just stockpile as much grist as you can.

At some point, you need to go God Tier. You can’t do it yourself because suicide is exile-disabled, but a coplayer can do it for you. It’s horrifying to stare down your best friend (awake or asleep) on a Quest Bed and murder them in cold blood. I was in charge of this part for the entire session, as I was the first to go God Tier. This will fuck you up in terrifying ways. So, a lot of you have probably read Macbeth. Remember Lady Macbeth’s breakdown in the last part (the whole ‘out, damned spot!’ thingy)? Well, that basically happened to me before the other players caught on and we had a big ‘group therapy but mostly psybuffs’ session.

God Tier disables the need for food…sort of. Psychologically, you still need it. Physically, you’ll be fine. Our players in [Clockwork Reversal] don’t eat, but the active players still feel the need to.

In lieu of Ascension, you’ll need to off either your dreamself or waking self. Only one should go on the journey, and if you leave your dreamself in the dying session you left behind, weird shit starts happening. And by weird shit, I mean Do Not Do This Even No Not Even ‘For Science’ I Don’t Care Just Don’t Do This Ever.

Make a Deal with any remaining denizens. This is typically only the Space denizen, but there’s some weird shit that goes on. You will need this deal. The price will always look like too much, but it never truly is. The denizens are programmed with [At the Price of Oblivion], but it’s not coded right (someone probably didn’t close the brackets or something silly like that. I mean, who could even forget that?

After your Deal is closed and active, you must get everything you need. Get the Escape Pod at this point, because at this point, event flags start getting triggered and the game understands that you’re doing something you should not be doing whatsoever. Everything will be rushed from here on out, as the game will start trying to trigger the Reckoning. Keep roleplaying.

 Once your Escape Pod is fully stocked, it’s time to go. But not quite yet. Send someone out near the Furthest Ring (no farther than the Derse letters though) and make a Deal with the Others for Safe Passage. It’s important. Look at all those capitalized words. If you don’t do that, the second you leave your session, some Lesser God is going to grab your Escape Pod and eat you up like squiddle snacks.

Finally, once your Deal is made, you go.

And you wait.

Until you finally reach your destination.

And then you keep playing.


	6. Bargains

**Bargaining with the Beast**

Bargaining with the Beast is the term for making a Deal with your Denizen. It’s always capital, because it’s just that important. Ask any still-living Denizen. Space’s will still be alive, others may be as well. At this point, the Cost will never be too much. They will grant you the ability to ‘navigate’ the Furthest Ring, or the skills to not go insane, or the means of escape, or even a plan. You will need this to escape.

There are many other FAQs on Bargains with the Beast. They all still apply here, but the Denizen treats this situation as if you’re doomed. Which, essentially, unless you escape through the Ring, you are.

 

**A Deal with the Gods of the Furthest Ring**

The Others do not really want you in the Furthest Ring. They’d rather eat you. However, you have things they want. Or things they’d like to have. I’ve never made a Deal. The Seer of Void made our Deal to escape. I do not know what she bargained, but she spends a lot of time staring blankly, almost through the other players. She interacts with others when prompted, but I think she may have bargained her Vision to a Lesser God, who appealed to the Noble Circle to grant us safe passage. In short, I don’t think she has her Seer powers…or regular vision, possibly.

A Deal will always be more than you think. If they ask for your Name, you lose your unique identity and possibly sense of self. Asking a Seer for her Vision will probably take her actual vision, as well as Seer powers. Asking for someone’s Voice, that will take away verbal and some written communication, if not all communication. Remember: the Others run on different principles, and we do not understand them perfectly. If they ask for something benign, it will always be more than you think. Treat it like a deal with the devil or a lawyer: read the fine print. Once you agree, it’s permanent. Even throughout sessions, until the game figures out how to repair it somewhat (but never completely).


	7. Skaian Magicants (part I)

Going into a Skaian Magicant while you’re between sessions can be downright unsettling, if not dangerous. Whatever Escape Pod you took had origins in your session, which is going to be destroyed by the Others relatively soon. While the Magicant is in its own little pocket dimension, it still leads out into the remains of your session.

If you go looking through your Magicant’s exits into what used to be your session, you’ll get one of two things. The first one is horrifying. You look out, and it’s just melting data. There are Holes everywhere, you can see raw pieces of code, and if you stumble upon something that’s considered ‘living’ by the game’s standards, nothing short of an intense shiny-fucking is going to help you. And even then…

The second option is just a face full of tentacles. Or Angels. Or both, if you’re particularly unlucky. This is the _singular instance within the **entire game**_ where Angel and Other corruption do not cancel out. Since the code upholding the session is breaking down, it _stacks._ This is beyond horrifying, and not something you should try, ever. Even for science. I don’t even know what this would be called. Speaker of the Furthest Ring and Singer of the Infinite Choir don’t combine very well.

Operatic Performer of Things You Ought Not Be Fucking With?

Musical Theatre Actor of All Things That Don’t Belong in Your Session?

Y’know what, let’s just forget about that speculation. It brings down the terror level in this. Whoops.

 

Anyways, there isn’t too much danger in just hanging out in the Magicant in the earlier stages of session destruction, which is guaranteed to last however long your session should have lasted, if it weren’t broken beyond repair. After that point (when the Reckoning would have naturally occurred), all bets are off. The Others have their nasty tentacles all up in that shit, and the Angels are all having a massive orgy on Skaia (Disclaimer: The Angels are probably not having a massive orgy on Skaia. However, this could be correct, as no one has ever checked). When this starts happening, things start…leaking. I don’t even want to describe this, but you’ll know when this happens.

I’m sorry, even trying to type it up makes me feel incredibly nauseous.

I have to go for now. I’ll get the rest of the chapter on the Magicants up eventually.

just…please dont go into the magicant once things start leaking


	8. Skaian Magicant (Part II)

Okay, after some serious psybuffs, a group cuddle pile, and a few days of gardening and other shenanigans, I am back. Now, I’m going to tell you about the fun side of a Magicant, the part that’s not going to kill you or make you wish you were dead.

Note: If you still wish to explore the Magicant after things go bad, be my ill-advised guest. The safest rooms are the ones with game constructs. Things will not leak into rooms with the following: Session CDs; God Tier Clocks; horse posters, figurines, or other equine-related paraphernalia; or those weird looking dragon plushies that are honestly adorable beyond words.

For those of you without a death wish, there is one safe room. It is formally known as the ‘Before the Beginning and After the End’ area. It’s speculated that this area truly exists before the beginning and after the end. Of SBURB, that is. You can’t escape the game through here, but doesn’t seem to be a part of the game. It cannot be scryed, and many game abilities feel somewhat…muted in here. This is in no way related to the phenomenon known as a [Mutiny], which is when your aspect says “Fuck you and your bullshit, I’m out!” The muted effect from the Before/After Magicant is different, but feels similar to a [Mutiny] (albeit a bit less aggressive).

Theoretical bullshit aside, this is a safe place to hang out. It is completely safe from Otherwise corruption, unless those nasty fuckers get their slimy tentacles on the entrance to this thing. Yuck. If you have a Deal, they probably won’t be doing that. And if you’re travelling through the Ring without a Deal, you’re just fucked.

This is not linked to a single other room in the Magicant, directly or indirectly. In fact, it may not even _be_ a part of the Magicant. As such, none of the leaking or other errors from a decaying Magicant can affect you in here. However, it contains all of the essential machinery in it. All of the shit you would conceivably need before/after and possibly even during a session. This should set off flags in your head screaming ‘don’t touch that shit!’ Except it won’t, because you’ve been through a few sessions and are beginning to pick up gamebreaking. As a note, this is the singular most dangerous state for a SBURB player: experienced enough to truly start fucking with things, but not experienced enough to know what not to fuck with.

In general, there are three rooms in the Before/After Magicant. The Common Room, the ‘Stuff You Shouldn’t Fuck With’ Room, and the ‘Things it’s perfectly okay to fuck with’ room.

The Common Room is the entrance. You’ll be poking around your Battleship or Meteor, trying to figure out what’s good and what’s not, and you’ll encounter a wall. Well, you’ll encounter walls a lot, but that’s aside from the point. As with any other Magicant, a Space player will say “fuck that wall for no reason in particular”, a Void player will say “this wall is amazing and I need to touch it”, and you will go “what’s different about this wall than every other wall in the goddamn ship/godforsaken hunk of rock?”

A side note: Heart players easily can find Magicants as well, with Seers and Sages most suited to it. The big difference between Heart players and the other group is that it’s a conscious thing for Heart players. Everything has a Shiny, but walls leading into Magicants don’t because they’re fucked up and not real walls. In a ship or meteor, you’ll have a feeling of Shinies being all around you. When that feeling vanishes for even a second, you’ve found a Magicant or a Hole. Go press your hand into that fake-ass wall. Congrats, a Magicant!

The biggest difference between a Magicant entrance and the Before/After Magicant entrance is collision. Regular Magicants have literally no collision: you just clip right through that wall. Before/After Magicants have a proper hitbox and collide. Not like you collide with a wall. It’ll be surreal as hell. You’ll try to put your hand through the supposed Magicant wall, and it’ll wobble. Walls aren’t supposed to wobble.

Note: Getting angry and punching a wall often results in discovering a Magicant and falling though. The game likes to laugh at you. If you discover the Before/After Magicant by punching it, it will react like Jell-O. I’m not even kidding, it’s freaky.

Once you go through the gelatinous barrier, you find yourself in the Before/After Magicant.


	9. SBURB Mental Disorder: Clockwork Reversal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To begin with, players are especially subject to SBURB Mental Disorders while engaging in Ring Travel. It’s natural. Most of them aren’t so bad, and can be chalked up to cabin fever. Due to this, they’re often called Homestucks. Yes, there is a player command called Homestuck. That’s irrelevant, though. Anyways, as I hear about or discover new ones, I’ll add them on in here.

This is a strange, somewhat unsettling, but generally healthy behavior. The players become entrenched in a certain cycle, and tend to repeat the same events. That does sound like just getting into a rut, but it’s more than that. For example, my Mage of Light and Witch of Hope played cards every day. The result was always the same: about three-quarters of the way into the game, the Witch used her aspect powers (somehow, she’s a mystery to me) to skew the game in her favor. The Mage calls her out, and then they both throw their cards down and walk away. This is scary enough on its own, but I checked the pattern their cards fell in multiple times.

It was always the same.

Now, this is actually fairly healthy for the non-essential members to get into. The only thing needed to shake them out of it for an event is just interaction, but there are only a few players unaffected by this. If somehow, every player in the Escape Pod goes into a [Clockwork Reversal], you are dead. You should have at least three active players at any time, if not more. I regularly go around (about once a week) and shake each player out of it to make sure there’s nothing going terribly wrong, and apply psybuffs as needed.

If the Time or Space player is acting as a [Pendulum] or [Pilot Light], this will not affect them. If one of your players is acting as the ‘Heart’ of the team and providing extra psybuffs and support very often, this will not affect them (this is normally a Heart player, but can also be a Hope, Rage, or Blood player).

The Void and Mist players will almost certainly fall into a [Clockwork Reversal]. A Void player will just cease activity, while a Mist player will have a very specific and elaborate pattern. At one point, our Seer of Void fell into a [Clockwork Reversal] between breaths. She was fine, but it looked like she was dead, dying, or just not breathing.

In my current journey through the Ring, only the Heir of Time, who is performing [Pendulum]; the Sylph of Space, performing [Pilot Light]; and myself, the Maid of Heart, performing constant psybuffs and support through [Endless Heart] are still active. We have five players in a [Clockwork Reversal] currently, and it’s maddening.


	10. Skaian Magicant (Part III)

The contents of a Before the Beginning and After the End Magicant are generally the same between sessions. It will always appear in your Escape Pod. It appears the moment you leave the session if every player in your session is either in the Escape Pod or dead. If a group stays behind, this only shows up once the group left behind is dead. Please, take all your players with you. Yes, even _that_ assclown. Especially if that particular assclown is Rain, Space, Time, Mist, or Void. These guys are terrible, and you don’t want them alone in a session. It’s for the greater good, believe me.

Or if you really don’t want to take them, straight up murder them. You shouldn’t, but honestly, you shouldn’t be leaving players alone in empty sessions even more than you shouldn’t be murdering them. I’m like…92% sure even gentlemanlyMannerisms would agree with me on this. Ideally, you should be taking them with you. Take everyone. But if this is literally not feasible (like a Void player missing a hitbox and they just go through everything instead of colliding, are an absolute assclown about it, _and_ have severe Angelwise or Otherwise corruption), then it is somewhat acceptable to kill them. It either falls under being a Mercy Kill, a Self-Defense Kill, or, at worst, a Necessary Evil.

Anyways, if there’s no one left in your session, you will have the Before/After Magicant in your Escape Pod. It has things in it necessary to keep your session/lives alive and functioning.

The first room is the Common Room. Not much in here, a nice space to hang out if you just need a break. It acts kinda like that Room of Requirement from those wizardy books from some pre-sessions. Rad. If you really need something, this is where it shows up. It contains all of the data of your session, which is freaky. On the other hand, if you ever need reading material, here’s where you should get it. It contains the entire Prospitian, Dersite, and Skaian libraries, as well as any libraries from the players’ houses _and_ any stray books in the Lands. I do agree that a fifteen by seven foot bookcase shouldn’t be able to hold that many books. That’s partially because half the books in the in-game libraries are fake, and also because it shuffles which books are on the shelf whenever you exit or enter the Before/After Magicant. Other contents vary by need. The only other guaranteed thing is the gramophone, which plays music. Surprise.

The Room of Things You Shouldn’t Fuck With, well, you kind of understand what’s in there from the name. Things you shouldn’t fuck with. This includes the Session CD, the God Tier Clocks, any Rings or Scepters that weren’t destroyed, at least one pumpkin (?), at least one Exile Terminal (become your own exile…woohoo…I mean, if you have to do it, you’ll already know. Inevitability and all), and sometimes even the Debug NPC. I wish I were kidding. He’s just kinda hanging out there, being a deactivated green asshole. Don’t mess with him and activate him. You don’t need that. You really don’t (I’m looking at you, Ring Voyagers with Umbral Ultimatum).

The Room of Game Constructs is a cool place. There’s an Alchemiter, a Cruxtruder, a Totem Lathe, and all the stuff from the Phernalia Registry. In addition to all of the default shit, there’s an Intellibeam Laserstation and a Gristwidget, along with the Ectobiology Devices. This is just common sense. Don’t fuck with Ectobiology except for like…plant or maybe consort breeding, _do not attempt to breed frogs, and **absolutely do not attempt to breed the Genesis Frog in the Furthest Ring**_. That’s really just common sense.

The Before the Beginning and After the End Magicant is a pretty great place. Just don’t be stupid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> do you guys have any questions, comments, concerns, or anything? this ring journey is terribly dull, and id like to interact with anyone other than my two active players and the other five stuck in the [clockwork reversal]...im helpful. being helpful is in my nature! maid of heart! thats pretty damn helpful.


	11. SBURB Mental Disorders: Pumpkin Cravings

Often, players will become obsessed with a certain pastime while on a long journey. This is okay, and can even help keep players sane. However, pumpkins are not something to be messed with. They are not fixed in time, space, or even reality. Players have a tendency to become obsessed with pumpkins. This can range from kind of sort of maybe wanting some pumpkin pie poptarts (yours truly is suffering from a mild Pumpkin Craving, but has it under control) to desperately needing a pumpkin for unknown reasons.

Space and Void players are particularly drawn to pumpkins.

Space players will hate pumpkins the second they encounter one. Do not let your Space player near a pumpkin. They will not understand what is wrong with it, and try to figure it out. Messing with pumpkins is dangerous, and Space players will do everything in their power to try and break a pumpkin, or to make spatial logic apply to it. I’ve heard a story of one unfortunate Sage of Space who tried to calculate the density of a pumpkin. She started off by measuring its position in spatial dimensions. Just the height, length, and depth of it. After a while and some other weird calculations, she had the mass, volume, and a few other measurements. She said they looked a bit off, but that she’d continue anyways. After she attempted to calculate the density, she was really freaked out. She said every single number was off, and something was terribly wrong. A bit later, she decided that scrying the pumpkin might help.

She was never seen or heard from again.

In short, don’t let your Space player near a pumpkin.

On the other hand, your Void players will love pumpkins. They are the only ones who can retrieve a pumpkin from unreality. In fact, some high-level Void players have simply reached through the fabric of reality, grabbed a pumpkin, and brought it into reality. There is no danger from a Void player having a pumpkin. In fact, they can build a pumpkin fort if they so please, just don’t put it anywhere another player could encounter it. Pumpkins are dangerous and only the Void players should ever encounter them.

My session’s Seer of Void has a room filled with pumpkins, Perfectly Generic Objects (or so she reports, I can’t remember seeing any there), and this weird fusion of PGOs and pumpkins. She’s having a grand old time in there, and this is where she spends her time when she’s not in a Clockwork Reversal.

One time, our dear Sylph of Space wandered into the Pumpkin Room without knowing. After that, I had to redistribute all of my psybuffs (and I have access to a lot, seeing as I’m the Heart player) onto her until she recovered from that spatial disturbance.

So, just don’t mess with pumpkins. As the saying goes, “What pumpkin?”


	12. Navigation

In the Furthest Ring, space and time are both broken as fuck. And that’s an understatement. The longer you stay in the Furthest Ring, the more twisted the space around your vessel becomes. The farther out you get, the more erratic the time around your vessel becomes. Time and Space players hate this with a burning passion. If they couldn’t do something about it, they would almost certainly go into a Showdown and kill everyone, and possibly a few Others. This is bad.

However, there are two God Tier abilities that help prevent this. [Pendulum] and [Pilot Light].

There are actually a few others, but they’re not as essential. Whoops.

Before I elaborate on these, know that these are the only instance that a Time or Space player should use anything relating to their aspect in the Ring. I don’t care how convenient it would be for you to just real quick teleport to the other end of the ship; you could end up three weeks ago. I don’t care that you feel like you might need to prevent a doomed timeline by time travel (hint: no doomed timelines begin in the Ring. If you’re doomed before you enter, you’re stuck. If Really Bad Shit happens in the Alpha timeline, you’re stuck), you could end up three kilometers away.

Even floating using [lifdoff] (yeah, that’s supposed to be a Rain ability, but when it’s not capitalized, it’s a flying ability) [Skaian Flight] [Arisen] or any other freaky glitch flying ability could count as using your aspect, and you’ll end up god knows where or when.

Warning: Do not take both your [Pendulum] and [Pilot Light] into a Magicant. Abilities are muted in these. [Pilot Light] and [Pendulum] are keeping you safe. If you have both on your Voyage, and one of them really needs to rest, then take them into the Before/After Magicant for no more than 23.5 subjective hours. If you only have one, tough luck. It really sucks to navigate, so throw all of the psybuffs you can afford at them.


	13. Navigation: [Pilot Light]

[Pilot Light] is a high-level God Tier ability that Space players get. While it is technically a high-level ability, this changes based on need. For example, a God Tier Space player hanging out in a fairly normal session that doesn’t need to escape will get this as one of their highest-level abilities. However, when there’s impending doom and a God Tier Space player needs to help their team get the fuck out of the session, [Pilot Light] is earned and immediately activated, as well as [Space Prankster]. This behaves in a similar manner to a Showdown, but this is in no way harmful to your team. The Space player gets all space-looking and glowy, and [Space Prankster] teleports everyone exactly where they need to be, and they propel the Escape Pod with this power.

[Pilot Light] causes the space around the Escape Pod to stay stable and navigable, to an extent. Everything in the game is to an extent. You’re immortal-to an extent. The game is playable-to an extent.

Anyways, having a [Pilot Light] helps you out in the Furthest Ring. Like any other navigation device, they’re really really susceptible to corruption. Yes, your Space player is literally functioning like a compass. Don’t call them a navigational device though, unless you want everyone to die. If you undermine, condescend, or otherwise look down on a Space player performing [Pilot Light], there’s a pretty high chance this will trigger [Space Prankster]. Remember how I said that Space abilities should never be activated in the Furthest Ring? Yeah.

The exact effects of [Pilot Light] vary from voyage to voyage, but in general, it helps you get where you’re going. Eventually. The Space player glows constantly while casting this, and when it’s really intense, they get the Space ideograil in their eyes. When they get Space eyes, don’t mess with them. Seriously. As with many other things, this can and will trigger [Space Prankster]. In the Furthest Ring, everything triggers [Space Prankster], which you don’t want. It has been theorized that as [Space Prankster] is automatically activated whenever [Pilot Light] is, a mild version of [Space Prankster] is constantly activated in the background. I don’t know whether this is true or not, but it takes so little to activate [Space Prankster] when a Space player has [Pilot Light] activated, I wouldn’t be surprised if [Space Prankster] is just active the whole time but not in use. Basically, don’t annoy your Space player enough to trigger this.

There are quite a few negative side effects to [Pilot Light], but this is not the kind of ability that can be activated and deactivated as you please. The second [Pilot Light] is deactivated, any progress made using [Pilot Light] to navigate is retracted. You’re not physically moved, but you feel even more lost and if you have a Seer watching out, it’s pretty likely they’ll just turn back to you, shrug, and say that they have no idea what just happened, but something fucked up. Choose whether to use [Pilot Light] or not before embarking on your Voyage. And no, you can’t just cast this in the middle of the Ring. It activates [Space Prankster], and [Pilot Light] is the only safe Space ability in the Ring. [Space Prankster] will seriously mess up your journey, if not outright kill you.

In summary: [Space Prankster] is a mess, and you don’t want to trigger it. Please don’t, in fact.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> note: im not gonna be able to post another chapter for...two weeks, subjective time. we're gonna be passing through an area with spotty server coverage, and im pretty sure some of those have more other corruption than a bag of squiddles...


	14. Navigation: [Pendulum]

[Pendulum] is, yet again, a high-level God Tier ability. This one is for Time players, however. When you begin your journey through the Ring, if it is truly a necessary journey, your Time player will learn [Pendulum]. It is activated in tandem with [Eternity Served Cold], the most dangerous Time ability. I don’t understand why both [Pendulum] and [Pilot Light] activate berserk abilities. It is such a stupid choice. Anyways, [Eternity Served Cold] is Time’s berserk ability. It removes all limits on temporal manipulation, specifically freezing time. Yikes. And it’s activated as soon as [Pendulum] is activated. As with [Space Prankster], this is actually beneficial. With both navigational abilities combined, the Time and Space players can get everyone the hell out of the session and onto the Escape Pod. Unless the Time player freezes the Space player, then it’s a waste of time (hehe).

[Pendulum] causes the time around the Escape Pod in the Furthest Ring to stay relatively stable. This means that those random fluctuations where a minute takes place over an hour or vice versa don’t happen quite as often. You still need to use subjective time, but everyone in SBURB does, so it’s not that big of a deal. This typically means your seconds last approximately the same time, but it can also do wonky things. Everything in SBURB does wonky things though.

You won’t notice the temporal disturbances much unless you ask your Time player. Don’t ask your Time player how time is fucked up. They will answer you, and then you will practically lose your mind trying to understand. No one but the Time player will understand. Not even the leading temporal theoretical quantum scientists will understand. Not even a native Time player currently holding a different aspect will understand. Please don’t ask. You barely understand how time works with to begin with. Just accept that things are happening and that you can’t understand them.

Specifically, never let a Light player ask a Time player about how time is getting fucked up. In fact, keep your more curious Light players away from the Time players altogether. Keep anyone obsessed with knowledge and learning away from Time players. There are some things we aren’t meant to know, and the workings of time and space are clearly among them.

Anyways, [Pendulum] keeps time mostly stable. If you feel like your journey took about three years, it’s pretty likely you were travelling for about three years (give or take) from the perspective of someone in an area with stable time.

Okay, I’m not a Time player and never have been. I don’t understand this, and neither does our Heir of Time (she’s helping me out). I don’t think that Heirs really understand their aspect, I think they just kind of go with the flow (of time).

However, [Pendulum] is a navigational device, and therefore susceptible to corruption. Not as much as a [Pilot Light] or a Seer helping with navigation, but still able to be corrupted. They’re acting as a temporal anchor, and this makes them (somehow) within the Others’ grasp. Keep checking for corruption. And just remember that all problems Time players usually deal with will be multiplied by tenfold, if not more.

And as with [Pilot Light], there’s always a chance of triggering [Eternity Served Cold], which you don’t want. No using Space or Time abilities in the Furthest Ring, remember? Don’t piss your Time player off, and use caution.


End file.
